The Society

The Charred Barrel Society will never accept a monetary endorsement from any individual distillery or brand, allowing our reviews to be as unbiased as possible.

Only Blind TastingsAll of our reviews at The Charred Barrel Society are blind tastings. We chose blind tastings as a review process because it removes the influence of marketing, as well as the perceived value based on cost. This also rules out biases and opinions based off of recommendations and past histories with the particular beverage.

The Charred Barrel Society began as a solution to help with a constant problem we were having- picking out a good drink at the store when you have limited cash in your pocket. The sheer quantity of bourbon, whisky, scotch and other drink options on store shelves can be extremely intimidating. We found ourselves wasting time standing around trying to figure out what to purchase. The last thing we want to do is spend our precious twenty spot on a drink that we then end up absolutely hating. The Charred Barrel Society was formed to start reviewing all types of charred barrel made beverages in order to provide a practical review on a practically priced bottle of bourbon.

Another aspect of The Charred Barrel Society is education, history and the common courtesies and practices when drinking.

It is important to understand that our rating system is not just about quality, but is primarily about value, which is comprised of taste and cost. There are two parts to the final rating of each review.

For the taste portion, we use our own rating system that rates on a scale of 0 to 4 (fingers). This represents the amount that you would be willing to pour yourself of this particular beverage. We don’t want you to think of this system like you would a movie review. Just because the beverage may have a lower score doesn’t mean it is horrible. Drinks that we would never drink again are simply stated as zero.

The value portion of the rating system is only calculated after the blind taste is complete. The final value score will be comprised of three options- low, medium or high. The formula we use to determine whether the value of the beverage is low, medium or high is as follows:

Blind tasting score + Cost Bracket = Value score

Here are a few examples of how this portion will work:

If a beverage is $10 and has a finger rating of 1.5 fingers, the value score due to its cost and taste combined would be high because the cost is low and the rating is decent.

If a beverage is $36 and has a finger rating of 1.5 fingers, the value score due to its cost and taste combined would be low because the cost is high and the rating does not match the price.

If the same $36 beverage has a finger rating of 2.5 fingers, the value score would be medium because the cost is high, but the rating is somewhat comparable to its cost.

Finger Rating Scale

The Charred Barrel Society does not condone underage drinking of any type.

Please enjoy charred barrel beverages responsibly. Do not get behind the wheel after drinking, and do not purchase for or share with underaged individuals.

“To Friends, Fellowship, and the Society”
The official toast of The Charred Barrel Society